And God Built Houses For Them
A smart rabbi knows how to separate her vocation from her personal identity.
A wise rabbi knows how to integrate both.
Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz
About Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz
Posts by Rabbi :
A Call to Authenticity
As I was typing this sermon, my two beauteous children were chasing each other with foam swords, the living room looks like toys exploded all over it and an ever-insurmountable pile of dishes is guilt-tripping us into washing them. These are of course not the images that make it into the family album or onto the social media account. It is not the story we are comfortable telling about ourselves.
Inner and Outer Light
One thing that is most striking about the Joseph story is that it is very much a story for our times: not only in the sense that its emotions feel contemporary but also in what place it occupies in the liturgical calendar.
It Is About Us
As we contend with complex issues of polarization, hatred, the call for increased security, the inability to speak to difference and the myriad reflections on our American Jewish identities, one thing stands out clearly for me as a non-Orthodox, ‘Reformative’ rabbi. This is the hour of our Judaism.
A Torah of Life
This is part of Genesis that addresses some of the experiences, concerns and questions that we are sitting with as a community tonight: death, mourning, trauma, fear, healing, celebrating life, honoring, rebuilding.
The Characteristic of Sodom
A pale sun hung low in the sky, casting long shadows on the proud edifices and statues framing the Central Square, etching forbidding lines into the pale, sleek marble, muting its gold detail.
The God Who Sees
Much has been written about the role of women in Scripture – far too much for me to summarize here. Women are compromised, erased, subjugated…. This is not an ancient story; it’s a very contemporary story and the obvious parallels leap at us from the page.
What A Difference A Letter Makes
We live in a world of information overload. In fact, we are so super saturated by choice and by information, that it can actually paralyze us and shut us down. This phenomenon is called ‘decision fatigue’…. In our hyper-complex world, we are spoilt for choice… and the choice can spoil us.
To A Land That I Will Show You
Perhaps our Jewish future is like Schroedinger’s Cat: whether we live or die, thrive or decline, is a matter of perception. Abraham had to journey into the great Unknown: ‘el ha’aretz asher ar’echa’ – ‘to a land that I will show you’. He was called to draw on all his inner resources and vision in order to heed that vision.
Our Father’s House
This High Holiday cycle, we are exploring this verse as we try to understand and answer the charge of ‘veheyeh b’rachah’, of how we can be a blessing. Our previous sermonic journeys have forayed into the territory of the soul. ‘Lech lecha’ – we have ventured into ourselves, and reached for our deepest purpose because, as I said during my sermon for Shabbat Shuvah: we cannot live Jewish lives by instinct alone: we are called to make Judaism our own and ascribe to it a higher mission. When we discover how we want to shape our lives and take ownership of our Judaism, we can act with generosity, with confidence and hope, with love, with joy—and be a blessing.
